CONTINGENTIE, CONTEXTUALITEIT EN GODSDIENST BIJ RORTY

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Summary

Which perspectives does Richard Rorty's pragmatism offer to religion, theology and philosophy of religion? He takes as a starting point the radical contingency of our human existence and knowledge, so that objectivity and transcendence no longer have any sense. Philosophy can only attribute to a new and better vocabulary about existence; therefore metaphysics and theology are no more to be studied. But we can point at some actual metaphysics and theology (e. g. in a hermeneutical way) which prove to be non-objectivistic. Besides that Rorty says that solidarity is indispensable for realizing more justice in our (liberal) society. And all solidarity is contextual, without any theoretical foundation, so it is more a kind of benevolence than a critique of power. Totally distinct from this social duty is the individual development to an interesting life, a self-creation everyone has to accomplish with irony. Now that our culture has been dedivinized, religion is superfluous or just acceptable as an expression for the private ethics of some persons. So Rorty reduces religion still more than Kant or Habermas did. For he gives up the thinking about trancendence and the principles of ethics. But we see, that most religious people not only have a strong principle (namely fundamental respect) to combine social morality and personal ethics, but also live ironically.